Archive for category: News

As with previous Easters, bin crews will be emptying bins on a different day because of the public holidays.

See more on the SODC waste collection calendar page.

Aston Rowant Parish Council Footpath and Amenities Group is organising a parish walk on Sunday 27 June, starting at 10.00am.

Meet in Lewknor. Park roadside in the village on the left side of the road near the Leathern Bottel. Please do not park on the pub forecourt.

It’s a 5.5 mile circular walk at a moderate pace taking in Hill Road, Ridgeway, Aston Rowant Nature Reserve, Bald Hill, Cowleaze Wood, Wormsley Estate, Linkey Down before returning to Lewknor by 13.00.

Please bring a snack and water. The walk will comply with Covid rules as they apply at the time. Boots or  walking shoes please. Book a place by phoning 07767 647714.

English and Welsh Daffodils in full flower at Fiveways. Best they have ever been!

The third tranche of £50 vouchers from the government under the Fix Your Bike Scheme are now available online.

See here.

How the scheme works
Apply for a voucher of up to £50 on the Fix Your Bike website.
Find a Fix Your Bike Voucher Scheme-registered bike mechanic to repair your bike using the list of participating bike shops and mechanics.
Take your bike and voucher code to your nominated bike repair business, and receive £50 off the cost of the repair. You should be able to book an appointment online or over the phone so you can avoid making unnecessary trips in person, but check this with your chosen repairer.
Enjoy cycling again!

Be quick – the vouchers go quickly.

Early March the parish council hosted a Zoom meeting with representatives from Oxfordshire County Council and Airband offering updates on where they are in providing fibre to the premises (FTTP) broadband.

In summary, the plan is not going to be realised unless more residents express interest and even then, it may not be until the end of 2021 or even 2022. It is possible that Airband may provide FTTP to the parish, but it is by no means certain.

Since that meeting, another option appears to have opened up – Openreach – which used to be part of BT and which provides most of the telecoms infrastructure we all use.

Openreach operates a similar process, called the Community Fibre Partnership. But instead of residents directly expressing interest as they did to Airband, with Openreach residents provide their name, address and postcode to one point of contact who heads up the local group. Those names are then uploaded to Openreach. The collective list is analysed by Openreach and a plan sent back to the group lead.

It’s impossible to know if the plan is viable from Openreach’s point of view or what the costs involved will be. But in theory, costs could be met by the government’s broadband voucher scheme.

To be clear, there is no guarantee that this will get us any closer to having FTTP. However, the parish council has learned that fibre is being run by Openreach to the school imminently and importantly, infrastructure is also being installed as part of the process that could connect homes. Now whether that actually leads to connections is another matter, but if nothing else, Openreach will have done a fair chunk of the work.

It should also be pointed out that another benefit of Openreach is that it should be possible for households to choose their internet service provider rather than be tied to Airband (for the first two years).

If you are interested and want your address registered with Openreach, please send your details to .

Note – by supplying your name and address you will only be expressing interesting in an Openreach-run FTTP scheme. There is no commitment at this point in time. But the more interest we have the greater the chance of success.

Below are two downloadable files that explain more.